Archive for the ‘trophies’ Category

Pieces, people. Working. Sometimes the right trophies land in the right arms with the rights outfits covering the right bodies. That was the case last weekend, as the WTA wrapped up its regular-season play and the ATP moved toward its World Tour Finals in London set for the middle of November. Above, Gael Monfils complemented his globe-and-box trophy with a well-chiseled bicep and a head of looks-just-right locks. He downed Jarko Nieminen in Stockholm 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.

Don’t harp on Vika. Seriously. We kind of love this one, too. The half tennis racket slash harp look works well with the stone texture. And, luckily Victoria Azarenka is wearing a well-matching dark tone. It was a bright week for the world no. 3 in Luxembourg, where she took care of Monica Niculescuin straight sets, 6-2, 6-2. Vika opens her Istanbul campaign tomorrow against Sam Stosur.

Double the fun. Since the US Open, Janko Tipsarevic has nabbed two ATP titles. Before it zero? Ever. Tipsy beat Viktor Troicki in the first-ever all-Serb final in Moscow, 6-2 6-4. Must be his new bod, right?

Saving the first for last. Last but not least: Dominika Cibulkova got her first trophy smooch of her career in Moscow. The pesky Slovakian downedLucie Safarova, 3-6 7-6 (1) 7-5. | TSF Vault: More trophies to watch

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Check out this Roger Federer tee being sold by Nike at their on-site U.S. Open booth. It wasn’t included in the preview they released, so I’m glad we ran across it!

Pop quiz: The images show Roger’s medal from the Olympics (albeit in doubles) along with 14 of his majors. He has 16 Slams in total; which ones did they leave out?

In a rush: Fed took care of things quickly against Juan Monaco in the fourth round of this year’s men’s singles event; between the late start (that Wozniacki/Kuznetsova took forever) and the threat of a rain delay, he wanted to finish ASAP. Roger only dropped three games against the Argentine and has booked a quarterfinal appointment with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the man who beat him in the final 8 of this year’s Wimbledon. (Draw:Men’s Singles)

Streak this: While Novak Djokovic may be 53-1 this year and 29-0 on hardcourts, he doesn’t have as many wins this summer as Serena Williams. Serena hasn’t lost since Wimbledon, winning her second straight US Open Series tournament in Toronto over the weekend, running through the field with a only hiccup here or there — much like she had in Standford at the Bank of the West Classic. Serena’s final triumph was over Sam Stosur, who beat Williams in the French Open quarterfinals last year in a tight affair. Not this time: Serena won the Rogers Cup for the second time, 6-4 6-2.

King Nole: While it is clear that Serena is having a banner summer, so, too, is Nole. You just can’t take it away from him — he’s having a banner year. Prior to his final yesterday against Mardy Fish, Djoko had dropped just 20 games in four straight-set matches. Remember: this dude hadn’t played since Wimbledon! Seriously: undisputed world no. 1 on l-o-c-k. The final was a good one, thanks to a gamely Fish, who we hope will show up in similar form in two week’s time at Flushing Meadows. Nole, as he has 52 other times this year, emerged the winner with a 6-2 3-6 6-4 effort.

Clear as day: As for the trophies, we can’t say we’re the biggest fan of the clear glass look, but if we had to choose, we’ll take Serena’s lighter, thinner option over Nole’s marginally phallic offering. But the real question? Who had the better celebration?!

Back to the basics: It took this week on TSF for us to remember that Trophy Watch is just that: watching the trophies. The tour trots the globe and the globe is a creative, eccentric place. And where better does it come out than the trophies we get to see every weekend?! Sure, the clothes are great. The tournament sites are entertaining. But these trophies? There is nothing better.

Mountain mayhem: Spanish man Marcel Granollers climbed a big one this weekend, downingFernando Verdasco in the Swiss Open at Gstaad, 6-4 3-6 6-3 to win his second career title and first since 2008.

Include us next time, please. On the creative process to come up with this gem. Alexandr Dolgopolov (and his head band) ruined the chances of hometown hero Marin Cilic in Umag, Croatia. Dolgopolov won 6-4 3-6 6-3.

Smile, Mr. Bear. Serena Williams and Marion Bartoli were smiling just fine for the camera, though that brown bear on the right looks rather bummed out that he, too, wasn’t awarded a crystal bowl. Next time, fuzzy buddy! Serena tore through the field at Stanford, beating Bartoli 7-5, 6-1 in the final.

Earnestly Ernests: He ernested that one, right? OK, we’ll stop. But is there a more fun name to say than Ernests Gulbis on the tour right now? The hard-hitting Latvian upstaged hometown boy Mardy Fish in the final, winning the Farmers Classic with a 5-7 6-4 6-4 win on Sunday at UCLA. | More:TSF’s LA coverage(more…)

Different paths, same result: The lead-ups to their respective Wimbledon titles could not have been more different, but it was Petra Kvitova and Novak Djokovic who were at the Champions’ Ball on Sunday night, each posing with their respective, hard-earned trophies. Kvitova’s 6-4 6-3 victory over Maria Sharapova shocked us a bit — at least in the ease that she saw it through — and the way she took it all in stride (no on-court breakdown, P?!) after winning. For Djokovic, his 6-4 6-1 1-6 6-3 win over Rafael Nadal was the Spaniard’s first loss to someone other than Roger Federer in a Grand Slam final. Below, a look at all the Wimbledon champs from the Bryan brothers’ historic doubles victory to the winning juniors. Above: We are digging Kvitova’s toned-down side bun and simple, but gorgeous manicure. A classy champ!

Us, too! It was a monstrous week for Bob and Mike Bryan, who won their third round match 16-14 in the fifth set and semifinal match 9-7 in the fifth set before comfortably rolling in the final, 6-3 6-4 7-6 (2) over Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania. Their win in London was their 11th Major title, which ties them with Aussie duo Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge for most Grand Slams by a doubles pairing.

Not just you, Novak: Djokovic became the world’s no. 1 player in yesterday’s rankings with his win at the All England Club, but so, too, did Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, who took the ladies’ doubles crown. Peschke and Srebotnik subdued Sam Stosur and Sabine Lisicki 6-3 6-1 for the title.

Smile, Jurgen: Our life wouldn’t be complete if we couldn’t include mixed doubles cutie Jurgen Melzer in this week’s Trophy Watch. The Austrian paired up with Czech Iveta Benesovato take the mixed crown over Elena Vesnina and Mahesh Bhupathi, 6-3 6-2. | TSF Vault:Jurgen Melzer

After the cut: Australia wins a double in singles with boys’ and girls’ winners while Novak gets a champion’s welcome home in Belgrade. (more…)

A notch for each win? How cool is the Ion Tiriac trophy at the Mutua Madrid Masters in Spain? Sure, the home crowd wanted their boy Rafael Nadal to pull through in this one, but Novak is hot right now. H-O-T hot. 32 straight matches? No prob. The world no. 2 now takes his unblemished 2011 record to Rome after beating Rafa 7-5, 6-4. Look:Rome draw

Before we step away from the men, this between-the-legs lob winner from Rafa might be one of the best shots you’ve ever seen. We’re serious. Click. Play.

Bracing for a win. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a big winner sporting some metal on her teeth on the WTA. Great to see Petra Kvitova, the Czech who had a phenomenal 2010, rise above the rest in Madrid. Will she be the Aravane Rezai of 2010 and slump for the rest of the season? We hope not. Here, she smiles after a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win over Victoria Azarenka.

It’s no Rome for the new member of the top ten. Kvitova will forego the top tier WTA event for a smaller ITF event in Prague. No, we’re not kidding. Draws: Ladies in Rome | Prague (… ?)

After the cut? Nole cuddles with the ballkids after his Madrid W. (more…)

Petra Kvitova slayed the biggest giant of all this weekend in Paris: new world no. 1 and Aussie Open winner Kim Clijsters, 6-4 6-3 in the final. Isn’t there something missing from her trophy though? Like… a big chunk of it??

Meanwhile, over in San Jose, Milos Raonic became the first Canadian man to win an ATP title in 16 years. His prize(s)? A Sharks jersey and bottle of maple syrup. I mean, jeez, don’t paint him as Canadian or anything…

Check out Daniela in Thailand, Soderling in Rotterdam and more of the isn’t-there-something-missing trophy of Kvitova’s.

Trophy Watch: No crazy hardware this week, but the storylines filled in just fine.

In China, Andy Murray was the last man standing at the Shanghai Rolex Masters after beating Roger Federer 6-3, 6-2 in the final. The Scot is now 8-5 in matches against Roger.

Maybe next year’s Rogers Cup organizers won’t waver on Ana Ivanovic now that she’s ended a two year(!) title drought with a victory in Linz over Patty Schnyder. FYI, this Generali Ladies Linz event was the last tourney she won — back in the same year she took the French.

And in Osaka, the other Asian veteran on the tour — Tamarine Tanasugarn — needed three sets to shut down the Kimiko Date Krumm express at the Japan Women’s Open. Two snaps to Kimiko, though, who upset both top seed Sam Stosur and third seed Shahar Peer — both of whom have put together solid 2010s — en route to the final.

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Frenchie Adrian Mannarino (Troy!) took out Steve Darcis in straight sets to take this little slice of the Ethias Tennis Trophy in Mons, Belgium.

At the Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo, Rafael Nadal beat Gael Monfils 6-1, 7-5 to grab his first post-US Open title this year. (He lost to Gigi Lopez in the Bangkok semis last week.)

On the doubles side, Eric Butorac and former Bruin Jean-Julien Rojer won the final match against Fila boys Dmitry Tursunov and Andreas Seppi. Two snaps to Prince and Nike for coordinating the colors on the kits of the winning team.

And in Beijing, rain-delayed finals didn’t produce any upsets, with defending champ Djokovic and Wozniacki fending off Ferrer and Zvonareva. Caro takes her second trophy this week (the first for reaching the world No. 1 ranking by overcoming break advantages from Vera in the first set. (The Russian even won the second set.) Both ladies can take this performance as a confidence boost going into the women’s year-end championships, held in Doha.

No melamine here: Congratulations to Caroline Wozniacki, who’ll replace Serena Williams as the top WTAer when the rankings are released on Monday; she’s the first Dane (man or woman) to hold the number one ranking. Caro’s 6-3, 6-2 win over Petra Kvitova in the third round of the China Open put her ahead of Serena, who’s scheduled to return to the tour at the Generali Open in Linz, Austria next week. (Draw: See how the China Open quarters are stacking up.)

Although Wozniacki still doesn’t have a Grand Slam title to her name, we think that there isn’t a question about whether this top ranking is deserved. Five titles in 2010, a consistent performance throughout the year, and a game that’s still growing. It should only be a matter of time before she bags one. (Even before Jankovic, no?)

And while we still think that Kirilenko‘s bod would do better in these adidas by Stella McCartney outfits, you can’t fault adi for the switch; Caro’s already given these clothes more camera time than Makiri ever did.

Malaysian Open: Fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny bagged his second title of the year by taking out Andrey Golubev 6-7 (7), 6-2, 7-6 (3) in Kuala Lumpur. “I cannot say I showed by best tennis here,” shared Youzhny, “but, although it’s good when you show your best tennis and win the tournament, it’s probably better sometimes when you don’t show your really best game but you have a really good result.” The Russian also won the BMW Open, on clay, back in May.

PTT Thailand Open: All the big players bit the dust — including Rafael Nadal and the rusty Juan Martin Del Potro, Verdasco, Melzer — leaving Guillermo Garcia-Lopez to square off against Jarkko Nieminen in the finals. The scoreline, in Gigi’s favor: 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. This was the Spaniard’s second final of 2010 and the first title. “It has been an unbelievable week for me, from the first round to the final. Every match is different. I think I played relaxed, enjoyed my game and everything was perfect. It’s hard to express what it means, I’m really happy inside.”

Toray Pan-Pacific Open: Over in Tokyo, top seed Caroline Wozniacki fended off an upset by Elena Dementieva with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Exo: And Nole won an exo over Andy Roddick in Seoul. The blooper reel’s here.

It doesn’t really matter to us who ends up winning that trophy from the Open de Moselle in Metz, as long as it gets a photograph taken once a year. Of course it doesn’t hurt that daddy Gilles Simon, who took out Mischa Zverev 6-3, 6-2, is the one in the picture.

Andrey Golubev has made history by being the first player from Kazakhstan to win a title. He upset the 15th-ranked (and 2010 Roland Garros semifinalist) Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 7-5 in the final of the German Open in Hamburg.

The thirty pounds Mardy Fish lost in the last year certainly came in handy in winning the Atlanta Tennis Championships final against marathon man John Isner. The score: 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Props to him for upsetting top seed Andy Roddick in the semis and overcoming local fave Robby Ginepri in the second round. Fish also won last week’s HoF tourney in Newport — he’s looking good for the Open!

Chakky’s baaack! Former top-fiver Anna Chakvetadze bagged her first title since 2008 by taking out Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-1, 6-2 in the final of the Slovenia Open.

Julia Goerges beat Timea Bacsinszky 6-1, 6-4 to win her first career singles title at the Gastein Ladies in Austria. Goerges has had a good couple of weeks; she also made it to the semis of the Palermo tournament before losing to top seed Pennetta.

Trophy Watch: For winning his marathon first-round match against Nicolas Mahut, American John Isner was presented with the Virgin Trophy, an award created by Sir Richard Branson “to empower teams and individuals to challenge themselves and enjoy the spirit of adventure” and given to anyone who succeeds in “record-breaking challenges”.

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SAP: At the SAP Open in San Jose, Fernando Verdasco beat a top-ten player for the first time in 15 tries with his 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 upset of Andy Roddick. Andy was none too happy about a few line calls that didn’t go his way.

GDF: Top seed Elena Dementieva needed three sets to overcome a nagging Lucie Safarova 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4. This is Dementieva’s second title of 2010; she also won the Sydney tournament before the Australian Open.

PTT:Vera Zvonareva successfully defended her title at the PTT Pattaya Open title in Thailand by taking down hometown fave Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4, 6-4.

ABN AMRO: Swede Robin Soderling was the last man standing in Rotterdam after Mikhail Youzhny retired while trailing 0-2 in the second set. Youzhny sustained the injury after he stunned top seed Novak Djokovic 7-6 (5), 7-6, (6). Soderling also upset a seed, Nikolay Davydenko, in the semis.

JCF: In Costa do Sauipe, the Joma-wearingJuan Carlos Ferrero steamrolled Lukasz Kubot 6-1, 6-0 at the Brasil Open for his 13th career title.

The women took a week off to fight for the flags, but the men were vying for titles this past week.

Marin Cilic defended his title at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors with a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 win over Michael Berrer. After the match, Marin explained that second-set hiccup that went Berrer’s way.

“I was surprised with the level of [Berrer’s] game. It’s not that I underestimated him; it’s just that I did not expect this level of tennis in his first major final. There were no ups and downs in his game; I had to earn every point.”

Marin currently has a 15-1 record for 2010. He won Chennai and made it to the semis of the 2010 Australian Open.

South Africa and South America: See the other two singles winners after the cut…

We can always count on Serena Williams to get dolled up for her trophy photo session. This fifth title in Melbourne is no exception. Here she is posing with the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Cup. (Read: Akhurst an Aussie tennis legend)

Can you imagine how these pics would have turned out if Justine had won the title? We shudder to think.

Moscow, represent: Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova bagged her first title since tearing it up on the clay courts in early 2009 (with titles in Stuttgart and Roland Garros) by defeating Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the China Open. Not sure if it’s this new positive aura of hers, but she was lookin’ damn good in the cap-sleeve top from Fila‘s fall Heritage collection. (Buy: $38.99 at TW)

Nole, unveiled: Were we really surprised that there was a Serbian striptease after Novak Djokovic won the men’s singles title at the China Open? He took out Marin Cilic 6-2, 7-6 (4) in a rain-addled final. Nole now has three titles (Dubai and Serbia Open); he heads Shanghai to take part in the Shanghai Masters tourney (this week).

If you know what’s going on with the bandana wrapped around their wrists, hit me up.

Stud, studded:Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and his pearl studs were no match for Mikhail Youzhny in the Japan Open. The Frenchman won 6-3, 6-3. Props to Youzhny, though, who beat Gilles Simon, Tomas Berdych, and Lleyton Hewitt on his way to the final. That one-handed backhand was smokin’!

Seal of approval: That chinese name stamp the China Open tourney organizers gave to Marat Safin after his swan song in Beijing was a cool concept.

Marat Safin lost to Rafa Nadal 6-3, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of this week’s Beijing Open.

Rafa on Marat: “I am happy for him to have the end the China Open for him like this. So, for the rest, it is important for tennis. Marat is a very important player for tennis, for the fans, so we are going to miss him a lot”

Up next for Safin is a wildcard entry into the Shanghai Masters.

Trophy watch: As a “thank you” for his years of service, the tourney organizers gave Marat a chinese seal carving with his name on it.

Not many repeats this week as the lower-profile players — at least when it comes to wins — chomped off pieces of the trophy pie.

Golden statement: In Kuala Lumpur, Russian Nikolay Davydenko wore his gildedAirness track jacket as he received the trophy for beating Fernando Verdasco to take the Proton Malaysian Open on Sunday.

Kolya now has three titles (Hamburg and Umag are the other two) and has yet to catch a FeVer; he’s now 6-1 in his head-to-head against Verdasco.

Simon’s say: In Bangkok, new TSF fave Gilles Simonkept his clothes on long enough to bag the PTT Thailand Open title with his 7-5, 6-3 victory over Viktor Troicki. This is Simon’s first title of the year and sixth of this career.

Wrist accesories: Like a good pro, Russian Maria Sharapova slapped on her Tag Heuer watch just after winning the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Unfortunately, the victory came from Jelena Jankovic injuring her wrist in the seventh game of the first set. Masha also won this in 2005, defeating Lindsay Davenport in the final. This was Sharapova’s first title since Amelia Island in April 2008.

On the right is a pic of the many bracelets (cute charms!) that Jelena wore with her red ANTA dress.